清廷立停科舉后,保留了優拔考試作為善后之策。按照設計,浙江在提學使支恒榮主持下,先后于丙午年(1906)舉辦了優貢考試、己酉年(1909)舉行了優拔考試。這兩科考試吸引了大量具有新式身份的考生參加,造成很多弊病,更引發科舉復歸的爭議,遭致時人與時論的諸多批評。當時認為續行的優拔考試實際是"不科舉之科舉",起到了強化時人的功名意識與科舉崇拜的作用。因此,討論廢除科舉制的社會效果與后續影響等問題,有必要從制度史與社會史結合的層面,將優拔考試等清廷采取的后續補救措施所起的作用考慮在內,并注意從歷史記憶塑造的角度,結合其時與考優拔諸人的言行、學部和提學使的具體作為,來重新檢視傳媒、當事者及清亡后時人的后設反思,乃至后世研究者的研究于再現和重構清末科舉停廢一事中存在的差異與盲區。

The Qing court abolished the imperial examination system(科 舉)in 1905 but kept the youba(優拔)examination as a remedial measure.In in 1906 and 1909,two yougong(優貢)examinations were held in Zhejiang under the auspices of the tixueshi(official of educational affairs),Zhi Hengrong.The two examinations attracted a large number of"new-type"young men,the serious disadvantages of which sparked a great controversy,inviting the criticism of reviving the kejuand other comments.In fact,the alternative youba was considered to be a keju in disguise;it reinforced the thirst for office and keju worship.So when discussing the social outcomes and subsequent effects of the abolition of the old examinations,it is therefore necessary for us to combine institutional and social history,taking into account the role of subsequent remedial measures including the youba examination.We should pay heed to the shaping of historical memory in conjunction with the words and acts of those who sat for the youba examination and the specific actions of the Xuebu(Ministry of Education)and the tixueshi,and reexamine the reflections of the new media,the parties involved,and their post-1911 contemporaries.We should even look at the differences and blind spots in later research on the reproduction and reconstruction of the abolition of the imperial examinations in the late Qing.